Sports Betting Blog

With all the hype surrounding the NFL season kickoff along with the start of the MLB postseason, it’s easy to forget that the NHL regular season is less than a week away. With an abundance of close games decided by one goal, it may seem intimidating to bet on the NHL, especially on the moneyline. However, as with everything related to sports betting, the most important thing is to find value – here’s how to do so when betting on a moneyline heavy sport such as the NHL.

Away Teams With Good Road Records

Similar to many other professional sports, home teams are often able to derive some sort of advantage when playing at home. The main advantage when playing at home is the fact that the home team has the “last change” opportunity following whistles, which allows the home team’s head coach to proceed with substitutions for desired matchups. Other factors that benefit home teams are the fan support, slightly favorable officiating, familiarity with the arena, and not having to expend time and energy traveling. However, some teams in the NHL are able to negate these factors favoring the home team and still perform extremely well even on the road. These teams should be identified early on the season and taken advantage of especially when the line is slightly inflated for these away teams.

Pick Your Spots

With each team playing 82 regular season games, there will be plenty of opportunities along the way to place numerous bets. As a result, you should never rush or feel like you’re forcing yourself to place a bet. Usually, the results of these types of bets end off poorly. Pick your spots when the following scenarios arise – a team playing many games in only a few days, a team looking to avenge a loss in a previous meeting, or when a team is playing a very weak opponent after playing a powerhouse.

Ride The Streaks

Confidence can be a huge difference maker in many sports. Confidence, especially applied to a team setting, can bring everyone’s level of play to an extremely high level. As a sports bettor, it’s important to zone in on potential streaks, whether it is winning or losing streaks, and jump on board early in order to take advantage of those streaks as much as possible.

Goaltender Matchups

In an 82-game regular season, starting goalies are not expected to take the ice for every single game. When goalies are feeling especially tired, it tends to show in their performance and will usually lead to subpar results. Look for these trends surrounding starting goalies in order to potentially take advantage of a mispriced line. Additionally, when a team has announced that its backup goalie will be starting, take a look at the backup’s statistics. Should he really be considered a backup? Can he more than hold his own? Usually, the line for the team starting their backup goalie will move slightly upwards, and you’ll be able to take advantage of this favorable line movement if the backup goalie is much better than his role on the team.

Focus On Recent Play Rather Than Season-Long Numbers

Over the course of a long regular season, many things can drastically change within a team. While injuries are an obvious reason, trades, rumors, lack of confidence, team chemistry, coaching changes, and other factors may render a team in the early stages of the season much different than the same team finishing off the season. As a result, numbers based on recent games will likely be more indicative of future performance as opposed to season-long numbers.